


Folded Paper

by ami_ven



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Community: writerverse, Gen, mentioned Clint Barton/Phil Coulson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 09:53:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10511367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: Clint teaches Bucky a relaxation technique.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ community "writerverse" prompt "origami"
> 
> (part of my [happy verse](http://ami-ven.livejournal.com/747461.html))

“Hey,” said Clint, before he upended a box onto the dining room table.

Bucky didn’t normally spend much time in the common areas – he believed Steve when he said that he was safe here, believed Tony that he was free to come and go as he wanted, but he still hadn’t quite gotten used to being around other people in this century – but he’d gotten hungry and wandered down to find some leftovers he knew were in the fridge there.

“Um,” he said, as Clint began organizing what looked like several piles of multi-colored paper. “I can go, if you need the table?”

“Nah,” said Clint. “I can do this anywhere, really, but I thought you might enjoy it.”

“Enjoy what?” asked Bucky.

“Origami.”

“What?”

Clint looked back up, and blinked. “Right, history catch-up. You guys were at war with Japan, I don’t imagine you got to learn much about their arts-and-crafts. Origami is the art of paper-folding, taking a square of paper like these and making… Hang on.”

He rooted around in the box that the paper squares had come out of and pulled out a battered paperback book. Bucky carefully wiped his fingers on his dungarees – blue jeans – and took it. Inside were black-and-white illustrations, step-by-step instructions on how to take those little squares of paper and turn them into containers or flowers or animals.

“Looks complicated,” he said. “Are you sure I have enough patience for this?”

“You were a sniper,” said Clint. “And a good one. Your record was nowhere near _mine_ , or course – What you thought I only shot stuff with a bow and arrow?”

Bucky snorted a laugh because, yeah, he kind of had. “Just surprised you know my record at all.”

“Well,” the other man said, “my boyfriend is the biggest Captain America fanboy on the planet – other than Stark – so I’ve picked up a thing or two.”

They were quiet for a long moment. Bucky put down the book and finished the last of his leftover chili, then pushed the bowl toward the edge of the table.

Clint finished sorting his paper squares. “Phil gave me that book. We had to lay low during a mission and I was getting a little… fidgety. So, when Phil went on a supply run, he came back with that book and a pile of old newspapers.”

“So you think I’m fidgety?” asked Bucky.

“I think you’re seventy years out of date and you’ve got a metal arm you’re not used to,” said Clint, bluntly. “Your old one, it didn’t really have fine motor control, did it? You still avoid touching people with this one, or holding anything delicate.”

Unconsciously, Bucky flexed his metal fingers. “Steve’s fella does good work, this almost feels real, but I…”

“Start with something in the first chapter,” said Clint. He waited until Bucky had flopped the book open in front of him, the well-worn spine staying open easily, and had chosen a sheet of paper before he added, “It helps, with the echoes.”

Bucky’s hands stilled on his blue-and-white paper. “Echoes?”

“Look,” said Clint. “I was only brainwashed for a couple of days, not a couple of _decades_ , but if you ever want to talk…”

“Thanks,” said Bucky, and found that he was actually considering it.

When he finished his first, very lopsided origami box, Clint just smiled and slid another sheet of paper over to him. They worked in silence until Steve came to set the table for dinner, and later that night, Bucky set a crisply-folded blue-and-red paper flower on his nightstand.

THE END


End file.
